‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Domestic Box Office Blooms With Solid Debut

The Big Picture

• Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film grossed $31 million in its second weekend, but experienced a 66% decline from its record-breaking opening weekend.
• Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorsese, had a solid box office debut, grossing $23 million in its first three days and receiving positive reviews.
• Other films in the top five include The Exorcist: Believer, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

The hit concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour won a would-be “Barbenheimer” redux battle this weekend, as it out-performed the epic Western Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorsese. The Eras Tour grossed an estimated $31 million in its second weekend, marking a steep 66% decline from its spectacular opening weekend, during which it grossed $92 million and nearly set a new October record. The film is being distributed without the involvement of a studio, and will play Thursday-Sunday for three weekends, before beginning the second leg of its international release on November 3.

Killers of the Flower Moon is an almost equally unconventional case-study. Essentially a streaming movie financed by Apple, the film is getting a major wide release curtesy of Paramount. The three and a half hour epic grossed an estimated $23 million across its first three days from over 3,600 domestic theaters, will debut on Apple TV+ at an undisclosed later date. Killers of the Flower Moon stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone in central roles, but none of them were available to promote it due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

The film has received stellar reviews, even by Scorsese’s standards. Killers of the Flower Moon currently sits at a “fresh” 92% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It also earned an excellent A- CinemaScore from opening day audiences, matching the career-high for Scorsese; The Departed and Goodfellas also earned the same grade from fans. It’s also worth noting that 46% of the film’s initial audience, rather surprisingly, was between 18–34 years old. All of this suggests that Killers of the Flower Moon could have decent legs at the box office, which it actually needs desperately, seeing as it has a huge $200 million reported budget to recover.

Theaters Have Something for Everybody This Weekend

Universal’s The Exorcist: Believer took the number three spot in its third weekend, dropping by 54%. The horror reboot, which also serves as a direct sequel to the classic 1973 film directed by William Friedkin, grossed an estimated $5.6 million. This takes the poorly-reviewed film’s running domestic total to around $54 million, which isn’t what the studio would’ve hoped for when it shelled out a reported $400 million for the rights to the iconic franchise alone. Meanwhile, Paramount’s second film in the top five was the animated sequel PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, which grossed an estimated $5 million in its third weekend, taking its running domestic total to $56 million. The children’s film has quietly provided counter-programming amid a slew of genre titles aimed at adults.

Rounding out the top five was the stop-motion classic The Nightmare Before Christmas, which received a wide re-release this weekend on the occasion of its 30th anniversary. Directed by Henry Selick, the film grossed an estimated $4.1 million from over 1,600 domestic theaters, taking its running domestic total to over $80 million, a full three decades after its initial release.

Denial of responsibility! TechCodex is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.